Menopause symptom checker: "Perimenopause na ba 'to?"

You rate a list of symptoms that Filipinas in their 40s and 50s actually report: hot flashes, night sweats, waking at 3 am, brain fog, mood swings and rage, palpitations, joint pain and frozen shoulder, itchy skin or ears, vaginal dryness, bladder changes, lower libido and changes in your period. For each one you choose how much it bothers you, from "not at all" to "a lot".

The checker then groups your answers into four areas, the same four rings as our Symptom Wheel:

• Body: heat, sweating, aches, palpitations, headaches, skin and hair.
• Mind: mood, anxiety, irritability, forgetfulness.
• Sleep and energy: falling asleep, staying asleep, daytime tiredness.
• Intimate health: dryness, pain with sex, libido, bladder.

For each area you see a plain band (not bothered, a little, moderately, a lot) and the symptoms that pushed it up. That is the whole output. It is a mirror, not a verdict.

Many clinics use the Menopause Rating Scale (MRS), an 11-item questionnaire with three subscales scored 0 to 4 each. It is a good research tool. It was developed by ZEG Berlin, which distributes it for non-commercial use, and a commercial website like ours would need ZEG's permission, so we do not use its items or its scoring bands here.

Our checker is an original symptom inventory written for this site. Because it has no validated cut-offs, we do not turn your answers into a total score or a label like "severe menopause". We only report how much each area bothers you, in your own ratings. If we adopt a validated scale later, this page will say so and explain the change.

A high band in one area means that area is affecting your life enough to raise with a doctor. It does not mean the cause is menopause. Thyroid problems, anaemia, depression, medicine side effects and stress can all look like perimenopause. A doctor puts your symptoms together with your age and your period pattern, which is how perimenopause is usually diagnosed. NICE NG23 advises diagnosing perimenopause and menopause without laboratory tests in otherwise healthy women over 45 with menopausal symptoms (NICE NG23 and QS143).

A low result with one symptom that really bothers you still counts. One bad symptom, like waking every night drenched, is enough reason to talk to a doctor.

If you answer yes to a red flag (for example bleeding after your periods have stopped for 12 months, chest pain, or thoughts of harming yourself), the checker stops and tells you to see a doctor soon. That message overrides any band.

In a 2012 community sample of Filipino women, hot flushes were the most common symptom (48.1%), and shoulder stiffness and lower back pain were each reported by 31.6% (Matsuo et al. 2012). A 2024 quality-of-life study in Paete, Laguna found about 32% of women felt their symptoms hurt their quality of life, with the body (somatic) domain most affected (Opulencia-Banayo and Habana, PJOG 2024). So if your body area lights up most, you are in good company.

The checker runs in your browser. Your answers are not sent to us, not stored on a server and not included in analytics. You can save a result on this device, print it, or delete it. Read more on privacy by design.

• Print your result or turn it into a fuller Health Report.
• Track symptoms for two to four weeks with the symptom diary, so your OB sees a pattern, not a bad day.
• Read how to talk to your doctor, including what to say if you hear "it's just stress".
• Explore HRT for menopause and non-hormonal treatments.
• Find a menopause-literate doctor.